Till PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



On the motion of Mr. J. Shirley, seconded by Mr. R. 

 Edwards, the Report -was adopted. 



The adoption of the Financial Statement was moved by the 

 Hon. Secretary, seconded by Mr. G. Watkins, and carried. 



Tke President then delivered an Address, entitled — 



PROGRESS OF SCIENCE IN AUSTRALIA. 



One of the most interesting histories of science is that 

 relating to Australia — its aborigines, its animals and plants, its 

 fossils and minerals, its physical and geographical features. The 

 first man who took any information respecting our Continent to 

 Europe was Dampier, who visited the west coast of Australia 

 with the pirates (called " buccaneers") in 1688, and a second 

 time in the " Roebuck " in 1699. He took notice of the 

 kangaroo, observed divers sorts of trees, saw the red gum of a 

 eucalypt, and identified it erroneously with dragon blood. He 

 even collected specimens of plants in the vicinity of Shark's Bay, 

 and conveyed them to Europe, where they are still preserved in 

 the museum of Oxford, identified partly by the late Baron von 

 Mueller. The Desert Pea fClianthns Dampier i j and the genus 

 Dampiera still perpetuates his name. Dampier was the first white 

 man who took home information respecting the Australian 

 aborigines, and it is to be regretted that he condemned them 

 erroneously as the lowest and most miserable people in the 

 world. Setting aside human shape, he thought them to be very 

 little different from brutes. Dampier' s misrepresentations of 

 our blacks were believed in Europe, and — according to the Latin 

 proverb, that calumny always leaves something behind — the bad 

 opinion of them has prevailed to the present day, in spite of 

 the contrary experience of explorers, missionaries, and 

 teachers. Seventy years elapsed ere Australia was brought 

 again before the notice of Europe, especially before the botanists 

 of the old country. The illustrious Cook brought with him 

 to our shores in 1770 two enthusiastic naturalists — Joseph 

 Banks, a wealthy man, then only 27 years old, and Karl 

 Solander, born in Sweden, a pupil of Linnaeus, then in his 34th 

 year. A large collection of Australian plants was conveyed to 

 the British Museum by the naturalists. Solander, who died 



